The present invention relates to apparatus for severing rod-shaped commodities, especially for severing rods which can be subdivided into components constituting or forming part of rod-shaped smokers' products. More particularly, the invention relates to improvements in apparatus for simultaneous severing of several parallel rods which move lengthwise in the course of the severing operation. Still more particularly, the invention relates to improvements in apparatus for simultaneous severing, at selected intervals, of continuous rod-shaped commodities which move lengthwise in parallelism with and close to each other.
German Patent No. 404,901 discloses a cigarette making machine which can simultaneously produce several parallel cigarette rods. The machine comprises a discrete severing apparatus (also known as cutoff) for each cigarette rod. Each cutoff is designed to sever the corresponding cigarette at regular intervals so that each rod yields a file of plain cigarettes of desired length. A cutoff for cigarettes is a very complex, sensitive and expensive apparatus. Therefore, a rod making machine with two, three or more discrete cutoffs is extremely costly and requires a substantial amount of maintenance because each and every additional cutoff contributes to the initial cost, to the sensitivity, and to the maintenance cost of such machines.